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tv   Headline News  RT  January 17, 2014 10:00am-10:30am EST

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this is why you should care only on all g dot com. no sweeping changes for sleep in surveillance president obama is expected to introduce some limits to the infamous intelligence programs but there is little hope of any fundamental reform. serious as it's ready to unite with moderate rebel groups in the fight against hardline radicals according to the country's foreign minister who was in moscow ahead of the peace talks. and scotland's please say britain's foreign secretary is on a charm offensive to convince undecided scots not to quit the u.k. as the months tick to a decisive referendum. it
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is seven pm in moscow watching r t international with josh welcome to the program now it's been embroiled in some pretty dirty business our president obama could be about to clean up america's notoriously invasive intelligence and he odd line reforms on friday which could impose limits on the n.s.a. after whistleblower edward snowden revealed to us all just how far it had gone into our private lives but expectations of and any fundamental change are pretty low as are two sam sachs reports from washington. today president obama heads to the department of justice just a few blocks from here and he'll deliver a speech on n.s.a. reforms specifically what he supports from the forty six recommendations his own review panel put forward a few weeks ago the president is expected to devote a large portion of his speech to the privacy concerns of non-u.s. citizens and businesses basically trying to assure foreign consumers that their privacy will be protected when they communicate using american tech companies like
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google and yahoo now you may remember when it was disclosed that allied world leaders like brazilian president dilma rousseff were spied on by the n.s.a. the president was quick to order a review of that program but the president has not shown the same concern for tens of millions of non u.s. citizens in germany and brazil and france who are also being spied on so there's a high likelihood that he will finally tackle that issue today now the big question is what happens to the most controversial n.s.a. program revealed by edward snowden and that's the n.s.a.'s bulk telephone metadata collection program the president could order an end to that program right now you could do it today if you wanted to and he wouldn't need congress's approval instead the president is expected to introduce some limited reforms to the bulk collection program and then kick it to congress to have the final say on whether or not it should continue lawmakers on capitol hill are divided over where the spying programs binary should be democratic congressman rush holt proposed his own bill
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for reining in the n.s.a. we don't want those who are doing the surveillance to be the very same ones who decide who the bad guys are deciding what to do with the n.s.a. has diluted the usual partisan rivalry between democrats and republicans was billed to fanning the surveillance and calls to restrain it coming from both sides just erratic campaigns for government accountability doesn't believe that any of the proposed changes will make a genuine difference. so far what has been telecast through government leaks look a lot like a lot of cosmetic changes in other words it does not appear that the president will be bringing in the largest controversy with just probably the bulk collection of american data nor will he be adopting any recommendation to house and store in baghdad in for example a telephone company rather than five anational security agency again i think
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a lot of these changes are are really discuss medic and they're contrary to what his own internal review panel recommended as a global spread of america's all seeing eyes have cost taxpayers a pretty penny as well the actual figures are as you'd expect top secret but here's some leaked information that lift the lid on spy spending the so-called black budget reportedly amounts to fifty two point six billion dollars for twenty thirteen out of that over ten billion you went to the n.s.a. this funny has grown by a staggering fifty three percent and decade yet sources say terrorist attacks in methods only involve n.s.a. surveillance seven point five percent of the time our washington correspondent and she count looks into the agency's effectiveness. for years the u.s. government had been hiding its dragnet surveillance of entire nations under the
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national security rug in fear of another nine eleven americans had no idea of just how pervasive the government spying program became but following edward snowden's revelations lice came to the surface does the n.s.a. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir. we know of at least. fifty threats that have been averted because of this information. there is only one case where this was useful somebody somebody thought eighty five hundred dollars to somalia to an al qaeda affiliate not to be encouraged but even in that case the government wait of two months to investigate this case so you know the idea that this is kind of critical to stopping terrorism is overblown public policy group the new america foundation has analyzed hundreds of terrorism related cases and says
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traditional investigative methods such as the use of informants in tips work best. the n.s.a. sweeping surveillance did nothing to prevent the bombings in boston last year even despite multiple tips from abroad concerning one of the perpetrators the president's own surveillance policy review board has concluded the n.s.a. bulk data collection was quote not essential to preventing attacks the head of the n.s.a. was eventually pressed to admit that the government had exaggerated the effectiveness of the program would you grant that fifty four cases you keep getting cited by the administration were not all plots how the verge of all of my thirteen had some nexus of us do you agree with that yes or no. yes the obama administration found itself in hot water when edward snowden revealed that the n.s.a. was busy spying on allies and trading partners and not just terrorists the n.s.a. has built a vast new center you talk to store people's private data and much of it will have
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nothing to do with terry's what we're doing is said to catering to tell a tarion procedures which is gathering information about all the individuals in the world. thousands have been taking to the streets to protest against what they see is their government becoming big brother when in the wake of nine eleven the patriot act are for the an end to privacy many americans thought at least they'd be safe but with recent revelations even that tradeoff is on the question in washington i'm going to check on our case. and there are reports that president obama made alan's a ban on the n.s.a.'s bulk phone data collection that's according to an unnamed white house official you can read about that as well as details of fresh leaks revealing down the u.s. and u.k. are harvesting billions of mobile phone text messages worldwide every day and. then the. i was
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hearing government says is ready for a limited ceasefire with rebel fighters as well as a prisoner swap the foreign minister announced a readiness to cooperate with moderate opposition groups against radical islamist after a meeting with his moscow counterpart at the same time sergey lavrov raised the issue of the opposition taking part in next week's peace conference. i believe all those who are backing the syrian national coalition and those who consider it the only legitimate representative of the syrian people which does not correlate to the real political situation all of them need to consider the role they're playing in preparing the geneva two peace conference. the opposition syrian national coalition is meeting in istanbul to decide whether it will attend next week's peace talks it's not a decision will be announced on saturday political analyst chris bambery believes. doesn't have the capacity to represent syria's opposition at the top. but the truth
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is the syrian national council do not represent those people no fighting in syria against the assad government and the syrian national council cannot really speak no for the opposition in total and we have the american secretary john kerry desperately pleading with them to come to geneva for the same time many of those people engaged in the fighting who are radicalizing as a consequence of all this and are looking towards a harvey type groups reject any role for the geneva talks or not want to go to geneva so the syrian national council are caught if you like between the back of the united states and there are people who claim to represent in syria the opposition who are increasing become disenchanted from that process and i think today they're known for by the assad regime the offer of a cease fire in a web or will put the onus on them as well not just to go to geneva but will they respond to this gesture by it's similar declaring a cease fire america's top diplomat has come out with a sharp got
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a nation of terrorist activity in syria syria has become the magnet for jihadists and extremists. a human rights group says that up to a thousand people have been killed in fighting between al qaeda linked militants and other rebel groups with some civilians even being executed former french prime minister domini devil town spoke to r.t. ahead of the geneva two peace talks and he said that dropping all preconditions is essential for any dialogue to take place next week. i believe we have two problems one is we need of caused the opposition to take part in this discussion because how can we have any settlement without having everybody around the table but also we have within the opposition a very strong. very strong fights between the two parts of the political opposition and the jihadists are fighting very strongly on the ground i think we should take
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away the jihad these two old people that are behind al qaeda and we should not focus on the problem of assad that we should not have any preview condition. before starting these political discussions the i really believe that iran should be as much as possible part of the talks because you want easy very regional players and if we can have you run on board in discussing the crude crises of the region we of course we will be much more efficient. for such a twenty four team the venues are ready and the outlets are primed but you'd need a whole heap of help to make sure it all runs smoothly. that's right because up in the minds of pres not play on a president putin has given a pep talk to the army of volunteers to sochi twenty forty.
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two the playing. field in big spirit travels with the flame from its place in greece. join james brown for an elemental and epic journey around russia and beyond. where i was to go.
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welcome back you're watching nineteen are national coming to you live from moscow now over the next eight months scotland's pondering whether to cut the cord with britain and the heavy weights of westminster are there wooing there or northern neighbors to stay as far as the public's concerned the decisions far from a done deal was get more on this now from our boy who is and a london so probably the scottish people have never had so much political chords lavished on them by the great and good so what are the two sitters focusing their attention on. well westminster's new scotland analysis papers
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set out the british government's position on why scotland is better off within the united kingdom say part of the focus of today's analysis is britain's extensive diplomatic network and how much scotland benefits from it so the document even goes as far as reminding scots about some of the relatively modern day in pleasures that they enjoy as british citizens such as consular services when they travel abroad which they might be taking for granted at the moment and of course william hague was keen to remind scots that should they vote for independence their membership within the european union would have to be renegotiated nor would they be able to use the pound and of course you also spoke about the u.k. protecting scottish business interests for example the world famous scotch whiskey and the salmon industry protecting it from excessive taxation and so forth but
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today scotland analysis comes off the scottish government produced its white paper back in november which propagated why scotland should vote yes to independence it was somewhat of a road map by the scottish government for water an independent scotland would look like and the first thing you notice about the two campaigns and the documents and the information that they come out with is just how contradictory that information is despite everything that we in the hague said today about scotland being better off within the united kingdom the white paper back in november argued that independence would boost scotland's international profile it would deliver new opportunities for exports and it also said that scotland has contributed more tax per head of population than the u.k. suggesting that scotland is certainly wealthy enough to go it alone but what we're seeing is two very big campaigns getting very much big in the run up to that historic vote on the aid. of september and i suspect that you case foreign
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secretary william hague is going to be making a few more trips up to scotland it's all part of westminster's intensified no campaign in the run up to the vote is going to see celebrities sports stars and business figures plead with scots to vote no to independence on the eighteenth of september. thank you so much for bringing us the very latest from the u.k. for you. well let's hear how the yes scotland movement plans to counter the westminster romancer scottish musician and the panel's campaigner pat kane told us is sure scotland will be way better on its own. to some extent a kind of truth can annoy and sense of people it will be made coming up the score and i'm talking about all the difficulties of scotland being an international separate nations the incidentally william hague for the five years after the scottish parliament was from different one thousand nine hundred eighty would be
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a disaster situation actually doing extremely well for scotland over the last forty years has contributed more to the u.k. than lived in social benefits we have actually a new contributor if you include oil and you include all the natural assets of scotland so number one would essentially really economically viable to go forward for independence but it's not just about being viable and it's not just about being the same as the westminster government who would want to be in its policies it's progress and when you look not just to mainland europe you'd be welcoming a very obvious european member with an independent scotland but we're looking to scandinavia look into those small countries that have the best indicators of well being economy and society through the world any any anything from the economics and to the cia index would would recognize these are countries to emulate that's what's called one's benchmark against the best in the world not really a rather broken record from the westminster bubble to topsy turvy world at the best of times but take a look at this. for anyone who needs
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a roof under their feet russian architects have turned up all idea of a home owning on its head take it or at a. loss. here how gross or to get in your kitchen it seems there branching out from p.c.'s that are now targeting smart household appliances for my thighs just. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the. it is the world that is seeing from the streets of canada. operations room today. while to keep a major event like the winter olympics running like clockwork you need more than
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top end news and world class athletes to make that happen you need a small army of helpers and assorted twenty four thousand recruits have been getting a presidential papped farmer has more. that meeting was also an opportunity for a question and answer session and one particular question of note came from a forum volunteer he was asked why did the official tracksuits for saatchi contain the rainbow colors of russia is against gay people for gander well mr putin initially jokes saying he did not design the tracksuits but then on a serious note pointed out that it was a law against gay propaganda to minors and also stress that being gay in russia is not a criminal offense but he also had plenty more to talk about in that meeting he joins me now i get your name right you know you're against now what was his message to you. mr for this says there. is holiday for everyone but twenty years first dictators for for resisters for the country for people who are going to avoid them
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but for us it's. quite hard and i say and that begs the question why have you become a volunteer because it's many months hard work and it's also one paid. for military is very important because you give something to a country and you get something back you get experience you get friends to get a lot of things actually a lot of skills and i think it's very important for everyone of you is just one of twenty five thousand volunteers it sounds like a huge number actually they are the chosen few because organizers did receive applications from one hundred fifty thousand people from all around the world and over the majority of volunteers are russian the rest are made up from people from or from around about sixty different countries as we've heard that they do have different responsibilities in general they're here to meet and greet the athletes as well as the delegates as well as members of the public and also help them find their way around sochi but other responsibilities do include things like
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translating press conferences and also escorting athletes to doping control so there's a lot for them to think about and do more importantly all of them do have a very nice. because they do and will try their best to make us all feel very welcome and he won't miss them either because they will be wearing those like the color trucks. and other news around the world this hour thailand's capital which has endured days of intense mass and government action has seen twenty eight injured by a bomb a device was thrown from a derelict building onto a truck carrying protesters at least eight people have died since the unrest first began of amber the latest shutdown bangkok movement has seen roads and ministries walk aided by the prime minister insists the only solution to the crisis will be fabulous action. bomb has derailed a train in central pakistan at least five people have died several carriages came off the tracks when the blast struck our road from peshawar in the north to kharaj
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in the south it's unclear who was behind the attack but the pakistani taliban deny it was involved in. heat wave that scorching is truly has turned deadly killing one woman as dozens of wildfires gripped the southeast the record breaking heat had already cut power to tens of thousands of homes and force is truly an open tennis tournament to postpone matches it's fear of the blazes are affecting the weather cycle causing the thunderstorms and lightning that have sparked further fires and injured several people. south africa's why farmers say they're living in an increasing climate of fear mirroring the apartheid that was inflicted on the country's black people for decades it's now white communities are enduring races attacks and even brutal killings this report is from artie's policy or. is fixing his fans last night burglars again trying to break into his farm two weeks ago they stoney quick and after killing six of his horses they threatened us
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with their lives and that there will rape the family to go to war for their daughter. told this to the police and they've done nothing about it for thirteen years when he has lived here in south africa his old horse feed but three months ago he gave it up the constant harassment that he's convinced is coming from some of his former black farm laborers had simply become too much in fact last week. they arrived a woman not far from here as you see to the inn well if you want to use a condom and they boil the kettle a board or. water on her back because i think they they saw that she was not afraid farm killings in south africa have hit a record highs according to genocide watch in the last twenty years since nelson mandela's african national congress has been in power more than four thousand white farmers have been killed but ten times that number of white south africans have
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been brutally murdered in what many claim are racially motivated attacks an hour's drive from willy's farm and cornelius mill has been farming cattle and maize for nearly forty years he's convinced the killings are part of a systematic bird to drive white south africans and in particular farmers out of the country he's paid the ultimate price his daughter vanessa was shot dead on his farm. to curb gun which are used to shorten the thirty three year old was killed in front of her two small children from the years. well i really think the farmers of the these really old farmers was good of the word i mean the government is saying that they're going to take the forms because we stole it the ruling a.n.c.
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has dismissed such claims pointing out that south africans of all colors suffer violent crime i don't. belong to all who live in age. both black and white and there's never been an intention to victimize wides and the vision in the mission of the south african police service is to protect everybody any citizen but the recent passing of nelson mandela who devoted his life to be consigning the races has seen white nerves shoot up personally i think it's going to get worse because they were scared for him if true it's a sad legacy for a man who devoted his life to building a rainbow nation the unfortunate reality is that south africa is still a very racially divided country has a huge discrepancy between the haves who tend to be white citizens and the have nots who tend to be blacks who live in townships like this one. r.t. south africa. but had we retraced the most illuminating moments the longest olympic
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torch relay in history of the games on the road to socialism. the majority of congress are now millionaires for the first time in history according to the center for responsive politics which sounds pretty insulting on the average american is that doing so well financially that seems bad like a bunch of rich guys rule the country which they kind of do but one could argue that congress isn't rich enough first off due to inflation a billion dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of campaign to get in the congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so
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yeah a million dollars of net worth may sound pretty rich to you or me but the expensive game of us politics these guys can't even afford the costs related to getting the work electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it is no surprise that people like you are me can't get into the law making business without selling at least a little piece of our souls to someone who has very deep pockets so again the problem isn't that congressmen are wealthy it is that many of them have to get constant financing in order to maintain their positions and as you average folks know once you're in debt they've got you by the throat well that's just my opinion . it was supposed to be just another news or of course although admittedly for a special occasion it was one hundred twenty three days before the start of the winter olympic games in sochi and i was in greece for the lighting of the olympic flame the ruins of elim pier one of them. most famous monuments of ancient greece
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the site of the very first olympic games where stones like this would have been part of the temple. the temple. temple laws.
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well that was a rather surreal. definitely the weirdest dream i've had for a while. it was a memorable ceremony. because one pretty sure the high priestess never spoke to me . what was it she said it full of the flame or something. there's. a lot more of course at base. so much the top story this morning than the still g. twenty pulteney libby claims invited me.

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